Undergraduate Course: Queering Fictions in the Twentieth Century (ENLI10326)
Course Outline
School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
Summary | This course explores the multifaceted representations of sexual identity in twentieth century fiction. It engages with the historical and social construction of homosexuality and investigates the emergence of gay, lesbian, transgender and queer identities in Western culture. We will focus on the theorising of homosexual identity from the perspectives of Freud and the sexologists of the early twentieth century, the gay and lesbian civil rights movements of the 1970s, the impact of HIV and AIDS, and the emergence of queer theory in the 1990s. In our survey of this literature we will focus on how the literary texts engage with political, sociological and philosophical ideas and discourses and so each novel will be read in parallel with key critical texts of the period. |
Course description |
SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Week 1 Introduction: Theorising sexualities
Week 2 Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness (1928)
Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928)
Week 3 Gay and Lesbian Pulp Fiction of the 1950s
Week 4 James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room (1956)
Week 5 Angela Carter, The Passion of the New Eve (1977)
Week 6 Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982)
Week 7 Edmund White, A Boy's Own Story (1982)
Week 8 Essay Completion Week
Week 9 Colm Tóibín, The Blackwater Lightship (1999)
Week 10 Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body (1992)
Week 11 Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet (1997)
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Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites | None |
High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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Academic year 2023/24, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 30 |
Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
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Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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Additional Information (Assessment) |
Standard model:
2500 word coursework essay (40%) submitted mid-semester
+ 3000 word final essay submitted at end of semester / in exam period (60%).
OR: Alternative model: alternative coursework assessment (40%)
+ 3000 word final essay submitted at end of semester / in exam period (60%)
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Feedback |
Not entered |
No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- By the end of the course a student will be able to demonstrate knowledge of and critical engagement with a range of twentieth-century fictions concerned with the representation of homosexuality and LGBT issues.
- By the end of the course a student will be able to demonstrate the relation of these fictions to the wider cultural field of writing and representation
- By the end of the course a student will be able to demonstrate knowledge of contemporary debates and concepts in LGBT and Queer Studies and related critical discourses regarding sexual identities, relations and representation.
- By the end of the course a student will be able to demonstrate the ability to deploy a variety of methodological approaches to the study of LGBT and queer representation.
- By the end of the course a student will be able to demonstrate the ability to reflect constructively on the development of their own learning and research practice.
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Reading List
PRIMARY TEXTS
Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness (1928)
Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928)
Katherine V Forrest, Lesbian Pulp Fiction (2005)
Ann Bannon, I Am A Woman (1959)
Michael Bronski, Pulp Friction (2002)
James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room (1956)
Angela Carter, The Passion of the New Eve (1977)
Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982)
Edmund White, A Boy's Own Story (1982)
Colm Toibin, The Blackwater Lightship (1999)
Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body (1992)
Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet (1997)
SELECTED GENERAL SECONDARY READING
Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, and David M. Halperin, The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (1993)
Lillian Faderman, Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present (1985)
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (1990)
Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter (1993)
Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp (2001)
Terry Castle, The Apparitional Lesbian (1993)
Paul Hammond, Love Between Men in English Literature (1996)
Karla Jay and Joanne Glasgow (eds), Lesbian Texts and Contexts (1990)
Susan J Wolfe and Julia Penelope (eds), Sexual Practice, Textual Theory: Lesbian Cultural Criticism (1993)
Sally Munt (ed.), New Lesbian Criticism (1992)
Joseph Bristow, Sexuality (1997)
Jeffrey Weeks, Sexuality and its Discontents (1985)
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet (1990)
Annamarie Jagose, Queer Theory: An Introduction 1997)
Donald E Hall, Queer Theories (2002)
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge Vol 1 (1978)
Judith Hablberstam, Female Masculinity (1998)
Greg Woods, A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition (1999)
Jonathan Dollimore, Sexual Dissidence: Augustine to Wilde, Freud to
Foucault (1991)
Alan Sinfield, Gay and After (1998)
Diana Fuss, Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories (1991)
Lee Edelman, Homographesis: Essays in Gay Literary and Cultural Theory (1994)
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Additional Information
Course URL |
https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/undergraduate/current/honours |
Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
Special Arrangements |
Numbers are limited, with priority given to students taking degrees involving English or Scottish Literature and Visiting Students placed by the Admissions Office. Students not in these categories need the written approval of the Head of English Literature before enrolling. |
Additional Class Delivery Information |
One hour seminar per week for 10 weeks;
plus attendance for one hour a week for 10 weeks at Autonomous Learning Group - times to be arranged. |
Keywords | queer fiction sexuality identity homosexuality lesbian gay |
Contacts
Course organiser | Dr Carole Jones
Tel: (0131 6)50 3068
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Hope Hamilton
Tel: (0131 6)50 4167
Email: |
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